Caitlin: Corlyx is just the two of us, Caitlin Stokes and Brandon Ashley. We started making music together last year and have already honed in on our sound we are calling "Dark Pop". There’s a lot of sub-genres that we could list off: Indie/electronic/industrial/melodic rock etc. that you can hear in our music but we feel like Dark Pop sort of sums up what we are doing with Corlyx.

Caitlin: Both of us started playing and writing music very young. Brandon was performing at age 9 and I was singing before I could read. We both have musical family backgrounds so it came pretty naturally to us. We both started playing instruments super young which really helped us with song writing in general. I was self taught with guitar and drums so I’m not as good as a musician as Brandon is but we work really well off each others strengths and weaknesses. As far as song writing goes neither of us have experienced a more inspiring partner to work with, and we also get to bang afterwards, which I’m sure us being a couple is obvious at this point. 

As far as "modern electro" goes, both of us are more influenced by the nineties rather than what’s going on with music today. When artists get caught up in trends it can be like a dog chasing its tail, meaning, by the time your music gets heard it's already outdated because your sound was already copied by ten-thousand other artists. We just write and produce music that we want to hear and that’s it. I’m not worried about what’s on the radio. We do play around with new technologies of course which has also added to our sound but we remain very much inspired by the era of nineties music.

Caitlin: Like I just said the nineties for the both of us but to be more specific without listing a hundred of our favorite bands you can definitely hear that we love NIN, Depeche Mode, Portishead, The Prodigy and Bjork to name a few. We love the heavy dark synths mixed with powerful emotionally packed vocals. Music that makes you want to cry, dance or fuck.

Caitlin: We me at a rock bar in Hollywood called Loaded. It’s the type of bar you meet dirty rockers in which was exactly why I was there. Just kidding. It was close to my loft and they played good music. I saw Brandon. He was tall like me. We are both super tall freaks over six foot and he was hot. That was enough for me to approach him. We talked a bit, then he asked for my number, I immediately left the bar after that; didn't want to seem thirsty. He texted me right away and asked me out on a proper date the next night. After that it was on; we were inseparable. He knew I could sing but we didn't really decide to do Corlyx until I began helping him with some melody ideas for his then current band The Dark, which is an all male rock project that he fronts for still. After realizing that we co-wrote really well together we made it official.

Caitlin:  It was always Corlyx. I had a dream when I was sixteen that I was in a band called Corlyx. I woke up spelling Corlyx; it was very surreal I never forgot it. Even through all the years of playing in different bands I never felt like using the name until this. We wrote and recorded twelve songs within six months of deciding to do music together in the spring of 2015.

Caitlin:  Our sound has developed a lot more since that track and the other ones we initially put up on Soundcloud. Those were the first couple of songs we wrote last year and now with the "One Of Us" EP you can see where we are going. We already have most of the full length album written and recorded as well and with each song we do we feel we are reaching our potential as a developing project. Those first songs were pivotal to our decision to go full steam with Corlyx. We got great feedback and although they needed some work we knew we had something fun and creative.

Caitlin: That is a very true statement and we’ve both experienced this with previous bands however with Corlyx both Brandon and I have almost the exact same musical taste. The only major difference we have is he has a secret love for Hair Metal from the eighties, don’t get me wrong I love Metal too but that Glam Rock crap annoys the shit out of me. I also grew up in Hawaii and love love love old school Reggae and Hip Hop, Brandon doesn't necessarily not like that music but he never got into it as a kid so that’s pretty much the only way we differ. That being said we don’t run into any friction based off of those differences. Sometimes I’ll want to have Hip Hop sounding percussion and he’s always into it. Good beats are important in electronic music and you can get inspiration from Reggae or Hip Hop when it comes to making beats.

Caitlin: "Nobody’s Happy" is about how childhood trauma impacts a persons emotional state for the rest of their lives, leaving a constant void that cannot be filled, sometimes perverting their sexuality, all in the vain of reliving that past trauma. Things that make you temporarily happy quickly fade thus the continual search for happiness is merely an idea made up by fairytales and the ignorant.    

Caitlin: This EP was strongly influenced by our experience living in Los Angeles. One would have to have lived there to truly understand the message but the overall concept is relatable to most. We live in a vanity driven society thanks to social media personas and celebrity worship. So many young people have completely lost themselves in a world of lies and fodder I felt very compelled to write about these subjects. The song 'I Feel Nothing' is the only one that’s about a specific relationship I was in with an alcoholic and the struggle of loving an addict. I wrote the song many years ago but we decided to rework it for this EP. The arrangement was a good fit to showcase our range in songwriting.

Caitlin: For me lyrics and melodies come instantly. I hear a couple chords and I get "downloaded" with the entire song. It’s always been that way. I’m also an aspiring writer, I wrote five screenplays, mostly horror films, and have a number of short stories. I absolutely love poetry. I’m also a bit of a sarcastic brat; my personal twitter account is pure filth. I mainly tweet to make myself laugh. All forms of writing is sort of a therapy for me, I must suffer, critique and rant on a platform, this includes songwriting.

Caitlin: Ah, the forever burning question for the artist. Of course we are proud, we love what we do, however there is this voice inside that constantly critiques and questions your work. I can go from this is amazing to this is pure shit in two seconds. We are always striving to be more creative and our upcoming album will be even better than this EP, I think, maybe, maybe not, yes, no…..wink.

Caitlin: We plan to tour this spring/summer. Check out our website for tour schedule HERE.

Caitlin: Very thorough and thoughtful interview, thank you for listening! And to all of you out there, don’t forget to grab a copy of our EP out today on iTunes!